The Commission set up to probe the recording of phone calls in garda stations will not be complete until September 2016, the Irish Independent has learned.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to grant a request from Mr Justice Nial Fennelly to extend the deadline for his Commission of Investigation which was originally set to conclude its work by December 31.

A second interim report from the judge will be published this week and is understood to outline the reasons why the judge feels he needs another nine months.

Sources said that Mr Kenny will grant the extension.

This means that neither the Fennelly Commission nor the Commission of Investigation into IBRC will be completed before the General Election, as had been promised by the Government at the time of their establishment.

Both commissions were discussed by the Cabinet yesterday but no major progress was made on finding a way of breaking the impasse in the IBRC inquiry.

"Formal decision regarding granting of extension of timeline request will be announced on publication of the Fennelly interim report later this week," a government spokesman said afterwards.

Mr Justice Fennelly has already produced one interim report that dealt with the issues surrounding the retirement of former garda commissioner Martin Callinan.